The Bible translations into Latin date back to classical antiquity .
98-580: The Vulgate ( / ˈ v ʌ l ɡ eɪ t , - ɡ ə t / ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible . It is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church . Later, of his own initiative, Jerome extended this work of revision and translation to include most of the books of
196-638: A Latin version, originating from before Jerome and distinct from that in the Vetus Latina , of the Greek Esdras ;A, now commonly termed 3 Ezra ; and also a Latin version of an Ezra Apocalypse, commonly termed 4 Ezra . God Schools Relations with: The Vulgate was given an official capacity by the Council of Trent (1545–1563) as the touchstone of the biblical canon concerning which parts of books are canonical. The Vulgate
294-660: A century in an earlier Latin version (the Cyprianic Version), before it was superseded by the Vetus Latina version in the 4th century. Jerome, in his preface to the Vulgate gospels, commented that there were "as many [translations] as there are manuscripts"; subsequently repeating the witticism in his preface to the Book of Joshua. The base text for Jerome's revision of the gospels was a Vetus Latina text similar to
392-506: A complete revised New Testament text by 410 at the latest, when Pelagius quoted from it in his commentary on the letters of Paul . In Jerome's Vulgate, the Hebrew Book of Ezra–Nehemiah is translated as the single book of "Ezra". Jerome defends this in his Prologue to Ezra, although he had noted formerly in his Prologue to the Book of Kings that some Greeks and Latins had proposed that this book should be split in two. Jerome argues that
490-651: A contemporary of Jerome, states in Book ;XVII ch. 43 of his The City of God that "in our own day the priest Jerome, a great scholar and master of all three tongues, has made a translation into Latin, not from Greek but directly from the original Hebrew." Nevertheless, Augustine still maintained that the Septuagint, alongside the Hebrew, witnessed the inspired text of Scripture and consequently pressed Jerome for complete copies of his Hexaplar Latin translation of
588-548: A gang of thugs that stormed the Julian Basilica , carrying out a three-day massacre of the Ursinians. Thomas Shahan says details of this scandalous conflict are related in the highly prejudiced "Libellus precum ad Imperatores" (P.L., XIII, 83–107), a petition to the civil authority on the part of Faustinus and Marcellinus [ ru ] , two anti-Damasan presbyters. Such was the violence and bloodshed that
686-512: A general prologue to the whole Bible. Notably, this letter was printed at the head of the Gutenberg Bible . Jerome's letter promotes the study of each of the books of the Old and New Testaments listed by name (and excluding any mention of the deuterocanonical books ); and its dissemination had the effect of propagating the belief that the whole Vulgate text was Jerome's work. The prologue to
784-644: A noun form of the verb rapere in 1 Thes 4:17). The word " publican " comes from the Latin publicanus (e.g., Mt 10:3), and the phrase " far be it " is a translation of the Latin expression absit. (e.g., Mt 16:22 in the King James Bible ). Other examples include apostolus , ecclesia , evangelium , Pascha , and angelus . In translating the 38 books of the Hebrew Bible ( Ezra–Nehemiah being counted as one book), Jerome
882-533: A partnership between Johannes Gutenberg and banker John Fust (or Faust). At the time, a manuscript of the Vulgate was selling for approximately 500 guilders . Gutenberg's works appear to have been a commercial failure, and Fust sued for recovery of his 2026 guilder investment and was awarded complete possession of the Gutenberg plant. Arguably, the Reformation could not have been possible without
980-538: A set of Priscillianist prologues to the gospels . The Latin biblical texts in use before Jerome's Vulgate are usually referred to collectively as the Vetus Latina , or "Vetus Latina Bible". "Vetus Latina" means that they are older than the Vulgate and written in Latin , not that they are written in Old Latin . Jerome himself uses the term "Latin Vulgate" for the Vetus Latina text, so intending to denote this version as
1078-429: A small community of Christians unified by persecution, as the congregation grew in size, the acclamation of a new bishop was fraught with division, and rival claimants and a certain class hostility between patrician and plebeian candidates unsettled some episcopal elections. At the same time, 4th-century emperors expected each new pope-elect to be presented to them for approval, which sometimes led to state domination of
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#17327581990201176-571: A synod in 378, Ursinus was condemned and Damasus exonerated and declared the true pope. The former antipope continued to intrigue against Damasus for the next few years and unsuccessfully attempted to revive his claim on Damasus's death. Ursinus was among the Arian party in Milan , according to Ambrose . Damasus faced accusations of murder and adultery in his early years as pope. The accuracy of these claims has come into question with some suggesting that
1274-593: A thousand years (c. AD 400–1530), the Vulgate was the most commonly used edition of the most influential text in Western European society. Indeed, for most Western Christians , especially Catholics , it was the only version of the Bible ever encountered, only truly being eclipsed in the mid-20th century. In about 1455, the first Vulgate published by the moveable type process was produced in Mainz by
1372-411: A very brief notice to Damasus in his De Viris Illustribus , written after Damasus' death: "he had a fine talent for making verses and published many brief works in heroic metre. He died in the reign of the emperor Theodosius at the age of almost eighty". Damasus may be the author of the anonymous Carmen contra paganos (song against the pagans). The letters from Jerome to Damasus are examples of
1470-580: A young age with his parents. Damasus' parents were Antonius, who became a priest at the Church of St. Lawrence (San Lorenzo) in Rome, and his wife Laurentia. Both parents originally came from the region of Lusitania. Damasus began his ecclesiastical career as a deacon in his father's church, where he went on to serve as a priest. This later became the basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls in Rome. Damasus
1568-471: Is Jerome's preference for the Hebraica veritas (i.e., Hebrew truth) over the Septuagint, a preference which he defended from his detractors. After Jerome had translated some parts of the Septuagint into Latin, he came to consider the text of the Septuagint as being faulty in itself, i.e. Jerome thought mistakes in the Septuagint text were not all mistakes made by copyists , but that some mistakes were part of
1666-739: Is an edition of the Latin Vulgate , the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church . It was the second edition of the Vulgate to be formally authorized by the Catholic Church, the first being the Sixtine Vulgate . The Clementine Vulgate was promulgated in 1592 by Pope Clement VIII , hence its name. The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate was used officially in the Catholic Church until 1979, when the Nova Vulgata
1764-475: Is associated with the legitimization of Christianity and its later adoption as the official religion of the Roman state in 380 . The reign of Gratian , which coincided with Damasus' papacy, forms an important epoch in ecclesiastical history, since during that period (359–383), Catholic Christianity for the first time became dominant throughout the empire. Under the influence of Ambrose, Gratian refused to wear
1862-606: Is identical with the list given at Trent. American Catholic priest and historian William Jurgens stated : "The first part of this decree has long been known as the Decree of Damasus, and concerns the Holy Spirit and the seven-fold gifts. The second part of the decree is more familiarly known as the opening part of the Gelasian Decree, in regard to the canon of Scripture: De libris recipiendis vel non-recipiendis. It
1960-541: Is indeed one of at least five revised versions of the mid-4th century Vetus Latina Psalter, but compared to the other four, the revisions in the Roman Psalter are in clumsy Latin, and fail to follow Jerome's known translational principles, especially in respect of correcting harmonised readings. Nevertheless, it is clear from Jerome's correspondence (especially in his defence of the Gallican Psalter in
2058-663: Is no certain evidence of a pre-Christian Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible, some scholars have suggested that Jewish congregations in Rome and the Western part of the Roman Empire may have used Latin translations of fragments of the Hebrew Bible . Unlike the Vulgate, the Vetus Latina tradition reflects numerous distinct, similar, and not entirely independent translations of various New Testament texts, extending back to
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#17327581990202156-458: Is now commonly held that the part of the Gelasian Decree dealing with the accepted canon of Scripture is an authentic work of the Council of Rome of 382 A.D. and that Gelasius edited it again at the end of the fifth century, adding to it the catalog of the rejected books, the apocrypha. It is now almost universally accepted that these parts one and two of the Decree of Damasus are authentic parts of
2254-641: Is substantially that of the Greek Fathers. The chief cause of this phenomenon in the West is to be sought in the influence, direct and indirect, of St. Jerome's depreciating Prologus. Significant scholarly doubts and disagreements about the nature of the Apocrypha continued for centuries and even into Trent, which provided the first infallible definition of the Catholic canon in 1546. Jerome devoted
2352-519: Is the third and latest official Bible of the Catholic Church; it was published in 1979, and is a translation from modern critical editions of original language texts of the Bible. A number of manuscripts containing or reflecting the Vulgate survive today. Dating from the 8th century, the Codex Amiatinus is the earliest surviving manuscript of the complete Vulgate Bible. The Codex Fuldensis , dating from around 545, contains most of
2450-447: Is with the chair of Peter. For this, I know, is the rock on which the church is built! This is the house where alone the paschal lamb can be rightly eaten. This is the ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails. But since by reason of my sins I have betaken myself to this desert which lies between Syria and the uncivilized waste, I cannot, owing to the great distance between us, always ask of your sanctity
2548-604: The Book of Baruch . Also beginning in the 9th century, Vulgate manuscripts are found that split Jerome's combined translation from the Hebrew of Ezra and the Nehemiah into separate books called 1 Ezra and 2 Ezra. Bogaert argues that this practice arose from an intention to conform the Vulgate text to the authoritative canon lists of the 5th/6th century, where 'two books of Ezra' were commonly cited. Subsequently, many late medieval Vulgate bible manuscripts introduced
2646-863: The Codex Veronensis , with the text of the Gospel of John conforming more to that in the Codex Corbiensis . Jerome's work on the Gospels was a revision of the Vetus Latina versions, and not a new translation. "High priest" is rendered princeps sacerdotum in Vulgate Matthew; as summus sacerdos in Vulgate Mark; and as pontifex in Vulgate John. The Vetus Latina gospels had been translated from Greek originals of
2744-479: The Comma Johanneum was open to dispute. Later, in the 20th century, Pope Pius XII declared the Vulgate as "free from error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals" in his encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu : Hence this special authority or as they say, authenticity of the Vulgate was not affirmed by the Council particularly for critical reasons, but rather because of its legitimate use in
2842-600: The Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of sacred scripture. He spoke out against major heresies (including Apollinarianism and Macedonianism ), thus solidifying the faith of the Catholic Church , and encouraged production of the Vulgate Bible with his support for Jerome . He helped reconcile the relations between the Church of Rome and the Church of Antioch , and encouraged
2940-518: The Epistle to the Laodiceans , but add: Another text which is considered as part of the Vulgate is: Jerome did not embark on the work with the intention of creating a new version of the whole Bible, but the changing nature of his program can be tracked in his voluminous correspondence. He had been commissioned by Damasus I in 382 to revise the Vetus Latina text of the four Gospels from
3038-702: The Gallican Psalms , Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the minor prophets, the gospels. The final prologue is to the Pauline epistles and is better known as Primum quaeritur ; this prologue is considered not to have been written by Jerome. Related to these are Jerome's Notes on the Rest of Esther and his Prologue to the Hebrew Psalms . A theme of the Old Testament prologues
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3136-726: The Latin Church . The Clementine edition of the Vulgate became the standard Bible text of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, and remained so until 1979 when the Nova Vulgata was promulgated. The term Vulgate has been used to designate the Latin Bible only since the 16th century. An example of the use of this word in this sense at the time is the title of the 1538 edition of the Latin Bible by Erasmus : Biblia utriusque testamenti juxta vulgatam translationem . While
3234-621: The Novum Instrumentum omne , the first published example of the Textus Receptus . The Complutensian Polyglot Bible followed shortly after. In 1527, Xanthus Pagninus produced his Veteris et Novi Testamenti nova translatio , notable for its literal rendering of the Hebrew. This version was also the first to introduce verse numbers in the New Testament, although the system used here did not become widely adopted;
3332-471: The Vetus Latina texts of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah were introduced into the Vulgate in versions revised by Theodulf of Orleans and are found in a minority of early medieval Vulgate pandect bibles from that date onward. After 1300, when the booksellers of Paris began to produce commercial single volume Vulgate bibles in large numbers, these commonly included both Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah as
3430-587: The Vulgate , a compound text that is not entirely Jerome's work. The earliest known translations into Latin consist of a number of piecework translations during the early Church period. Collectively, these versions are known as the Vetus Latina and closely follow the Greek Septuagint . The Septuagint was the usual source for these anonymous translators, and they reproduce its variations from
3528-576: The Western text-type . Comparison of Jerome's Gospel texts with those in Vetus Latina witnesses, suggests that his revision was concerned with substantially redacting their expanded "Western" phraseology in accordance with the Greek texts of better early Byzantine and Alexandrian witnesses. One major change Jerome introduced was to re-order the Latin Gospels. Most Vetus Latina gospel books followed
3626-537: The "Gesta" (dated to 368 A.D.), provides more detail. It describes Ursinus as being the valid successor to Liberius, and Damasus as following a heretical interloper, Felix. This account also records that an armed force instigated by Damasus broke into the Basilica of Julius and a three-day slaughtering of those assembled there took place. After gaining control of the Lateran basilica Damasus was then ordained as bishop in
3724-515: The "Western" order of Matthew, John, Luke, Mark; Jerome adopted the "Greek" order of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. His revisions became progressively less frequent and less consistent in the gospels presumably done later. In places Jerome adopted readings that did not correspond to a straightforward rendering either of the Vetus Latina or the Greek text, so reflecting a particular doctrinal interpretation; as in his rewording panem nostrum supersubstantialem at Matthew 6:11 . The unknown reviser of
3822-497: The 22-letter Hebrew alphabet. Alternatively, he numbered the books as 24, which he identifies with the 24 elders in the Book of Revelation casting their crowns before the Lamb . In the prologue to Ezra, he sets the "twenty-four elders" of the Hebrew Bible against the "Seventy interpreters" of the Septuagint. In addition, many medieval Vulgate manuscripts included Jerome's epistle number 53, to Paulinus bishop of Nola , as
3920-425: The 8th century. The Gutenberg Bible is a notable printed edition of the Vulgate by Johann Gutenberg in 1455. The Sixtine Vulgate (1590) is the first official Bible of the Catholic Church. The Clementine Vulgate (1592) is a standardized edition of the medieval Vulgate, and the second official Bible of the Catholic Church. The Stuttgart Vulgate is a 1969 critical edition of the Vulgate. The Nova Vulgata
4018-521: The Acts of the Council of Rome of 382 A.D." Pope Damasus appointed Jerome of Stridon as his confidential secretary. Invited to Rome originally to a synod of 382 convened to end the schism of Antioch , he made himself indispensable to the pope, and took a prominent place in his councils. Jerome spent three years (382–385) in Rome in close intercourse with Pope Damasus and the leading Christians. Writing in 409, Jerome remarked, "A great many years ago when I
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4116-577: The Bible . The Vulgate became progressively adopted as the Bible text within the Western Church . Over succeeding centuries, it eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina . By the 13th century it had taken over from the former version the designation versio vulgata (the "version commonly used") or vulgata for short. The Vulgate also contains some Vetus Latina translations that Jerome did not work on. The Catholic Church affirmed
4214-600: The Bible into vernacular languages. In English, the interlinear translation of the Lindisfarne Gospels as well as other Old English Bible translations , the translation of John Wycliffe , the Douay–Rheims Bible , the Confraternity Bible , and Ronald Knox 's translation were all made from the Vulgate. The Vulgate had significant cultural influence on literature for centuries, and thus
4312-533: The Bible were used in the Western part of the former Roman Empire until the Reformation . Those translations are still used along with translations from Latin into the vernacular within the Roman Catholic Church . The large Jewish diaspora in the Second Temple period made use of vernacular translations of the Hebrew Bible , including the Aramaic Targum and Greek Septuagint . Though there
4410-470: The Church's internal affairs. Following the death of Pope Liberius on 24 September 366, Damasus succeeded to the Papacy amidst factional violence. The deacons and laity supported Liberius' deacon Ursinus . The upper-class former partisans of Felix , who had ruled during Liberius' exile, supported the election of Damasus. The two were elected simultaneously (Damasus' election was held in San Lorenzo in Lucina ). J. N. D. Kelly states that Damasus hired
4508-443: The Churches throughout so many centuries; by which use indeed the same is shown, in the sense in which the Church has understood and understands it, to be free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals; so that, as the Church herself testifies and affirms, it may be quoted safely and without fear of error in disputations, in lectures and in preaching [...]" The inerrancy is with respect to faith and morals, as it says in
4606-445: The Hebrew Masoretic Text . They were never rendered independently from the Hebrew or Greek; they vary widely in readability and quality, and contain many solecisms in idiom, some by the translators themselves, others from literally translating Greek language idioms into Latin. Earlier translations were progressively replaced by Jerome 's Vulgate version of the Bible. Apart from full Old Testaments, there are more versions of
4704-415: The New Testament in the Vulgate version, but the four gospels are harmonised into a continuous narrative derived from the Diatessaron . "The two best-known revisions of the Latin Scriptures in the early medieval period were made in the Carolingian period by Alcuin of York ( c. 730 –840) and Theodulf of Orleans (750/760–821)." Bible translations into Latin Latin translations of
4802-460: The New Testament outside the Gospels is the work of other scholars. Rufinus of Aquileia has been suggested, as has Rufinus the Syrian (an associate of Pelagius ) and Pelagius himself, though without specific evidence for any of them; Pelagian groups have also been suggested as the revisers. This unknown reviser worked more thoroughly than Jerome had done, consistently using older Greek manuscript sources of Alexandrian text-type . They had published
4900-417: The Old Testament, a request that Jerome ducked with the excuse that the originals had been lost "through someone's dishonesty". Prologues written by Jerome to some of his translations of parts of the Bible are to the Pentateuch , to Joshua , and to Kings (1–2 Kings and 1–2 Samuel) which is also called the Galeatum principium . Following these are prologues to Chronicles, Ezra, Tobit, Judith, Esther, Job,
4998-513: The Pauline Epistles in the Vulgate defends the Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews , directly contrary to Jerome's own views—a key argument in demonstrating that Jerome did not write it. The author of the Primum quaeritur is unknown, but it is first quoted by Pelagius in his commentary on the Pauline letters written before 410. As this work also quotes from the Vulgate revision of these letters, it has been proposed that Pelagius or one of his associates may have been responsible for
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#17327581990205096-414: The Psalms only, three of them by Jerome, one from the Hexapla , and one from the Hebrew. Other main versions include the Versio ambrosiana (" Ambrosian version") and the Versio Piana ("version of Pius " ). See the main Vulgate article for a comparison of Psalm 94 . Some printed Latin translations were produced by early 16th-century scholars such as Erasmus , derived from his Greek printed version,
5194-476: The Syrian , or by Rufinus of Aquileia . Several unrevised books of the Vetus Latina Old Testament also commonly became included in the Vulgate. These are: 1 and 2 Maccabees , Wisdom , Ecclesiasticus , Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah . Having separately translated the book of Psalms from the Greek Hexapla Septuagint , Jerome translated all of the books of the Jewish Bible —the Hebrew book of Psalms included—from Hebrew himself. He also translated
5292-474: The Ursinian sect. Damasus then responded by ordering an attack against the Liberian basilica, resulting in another massacre: "They broke down the doors and set fire underneath it, then rushed in...and killed a hundred and sixty of the people inside, both men and women." Damasus next sent a final assault against some Ursinian supporters who had fled to the cemetery of Saint Agnes, slaying many. Church historians such as Jerome and Rufinus championed Damasus. At
5390-403: The Vulgate as its official Latin Bible at the Council of Trent (1545–1563), though there was no authoritative edition of the book at that time. The Vulgate did eventually receive an official edition to be promulgated among the Catholic Church as the Sixtine Vulgate (1590), then as the Clementine Vulgate (1592), and then as the Nova Vulgata (1979). The Vulgate is still currently used in
5488-402: The above quote: "free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals", and the inerrancy is not in a philological sense: [...] and so its authenticity is not specified primarily as critical, but rather as juridical. The Catholic Church has produced three official editions of the Vulgate: the Sixtine Vulgate , the Clementine Vulgate , and the Nova Vulgata (see below). For over
5586-416: The accusations were motivated by the conflict with the supporters of Arianism . Damasus I was active in defending the Catholic Church against the threat of schisms . In two Roman synods (368 and 369) he condemned Apollinarianism and Macedonianism , and sent legates to the First Council of Constantinople that was convoked in 381 to address these heresies . One of the important works of Pope Damasus
5684-436: The aid and encouragement of Damasus against an apparently triumphant Arianism . Damasus, however, harbored some degree of suspicion against the great Cappadocian Doctor of the Church . In the matter of the Meletian Schism at Antioch, Damasus – together with Athanasius of Alexandria , and his successor, Peter II of Alexandria – sympathized with the party of Paulinus as more sincerely representative of Nicene orthodoxy. On
5782-399: The basis of the Greek New Testament and the Septuagint , resulting in the Vulgate . According to Protestant biblical scholar, F.F. Bruce , the commissioning of the Vulgate was a key moment in fixing the biblical canon in the West . Nonetheless, as the Catholic Encyclopedia states, In the Latin Church, all through the Middle Ages we find evidence of hesitation about the character of
5880-448: The best Greek texts. By the time of Damasus' death in 384, Jerome had completed this task, together with a more cursory revision from the Greek Common Septuagint of the Vetus Latina text of the Psalms in the Roman Psalter, a version which he later disowned and is now lost. How much of the rest of the New Testament he then revised is difficult to judge, but none of his work survived in the Vulgate text of these books. The revised text of
5978-462: The books of Tobit and Judith from Aramaic versions, the additions to the Book of Esther from the Common Septuagint and the additions to the Book of Daniel from the Greek of Theodotion . The Vulgate is "a composite collection which cannot be identified with only Jerome's work," because the Vulgate contains Vetus Latina which are independent from Jerome's work. The Alcuinian pandects contain: The 13th-century Paris Bibles remove
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#17327581990206076-421: The cathedral of Rome. However, Damasus was accused of bribing the urban officials of Rome to have Ursinus and chief supporters exiled, including some presbyters. As a result of this attempt, some of the (apparently quite numerous) supporters of Ursinus interrupted this process and rescued the presbyters, taking them to the Basilica of Liberius (identified as the "basilica of Sicinnius"), the apparent headquarters of
6174-417: The common Latin rendering of the Greek Vulgate or Common Septuagint (which Jerome otherwise terms the "Seventy interpreters"). This remained the usual use of the term "Latin Vulgate" in the West for centuries. On occasion Jerome applies the term "Septuagint" ( Septuaginta ) to refer to the Hexaplar Septuagint, where he wishes to distinguish this from the Vulgata or Common Septuagint. The earliest known use of
6272-514: The council listed the books included in the canon, it qualified the books as being "entire with all their parts, as they have been used to be read in the Catholic Church , and as they are contained in the Vetus Latina vulgate edition". The fourth session of the Council specified 72 canonical books in the Bible: 45 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament with Lamentations not being counted as separate from Jeremiah. On 2 June 1927, Pope Pius XI clarified this decree, allowing that
6370-423: The death of Meletius he sought to secure the succession for Paulinus and to exclude Flavian . During his papacy, Peter II of Alexandria sought refuge in Rome from the persecuting Arians. He was received by Damasus, who supported him against the Arians. Damasus supported the appeal of the Christian senators to Emperor Gratian for the removal of the altar of Victory from the Senate House, and lived to welcome
6468-436: The deuterocanonicals. There is a current friendly to them, another one distinctly unfavourable to their authority and sacredness, while wavering between the two are a number of writers whose veneration for these books is tempered by some perplexity as to their exact standing, and among those we note St. Thomas Aquinas. Few are found to unequivocally acknowledge their canonicity. The prevailing attitude of Western medieval authors
6566-481: The development of the English language, especially in matters of religion. Many Latin words were taken from the Vulgate into English nearly unchanged in meaning or spelling: creatio (e.g. Genesis 1:1, Heb 9:11), salvatio (e.g. Is 37:32, Eph 2:5), justificatio (e.g. Rom 4:25, Heb 9:1), testamentum (e.g. Mt 26:28), sanctificatio (1 Ptr 1:2, 1 Cor 1:30), regeneratio (Mt 19:28), and raptura (from
6664-430: The diaspora of biblical knowledge that was permitted by the development of moveable type. Aside from its use in prayer, liturgy, and private study, the Vulgate served as inspiration for ecclesiastical art and architecture , hymns , countless paintings, and popular mystery plays . The fifth volume of Walton's London Polyglot of 1657 included several versions of the New Testament: in Greek, Latin (a Vulgate version and
6762-615: The famous edict of Theodosius I , "De fide Catholica" (27 February 380), which proclaimed as the religion of the Roman State that doctrine which Peter had preached to the Romans. Damasus also did much to encourage the veneration of the Christian martyrs , restoring and creating access to their tombs in the Catacombs of Rome and elsewhere, and setting up tablets with verse inscriptions composed by himself, several of which survive or are recorded in his Epigrammata . Damasus rebuilt or repaired his father's church named for Laurence , known as San Lorenzo fuori le Mura ("St Lawrence outside
6860-452: The first translation of the Old Testament into Latin directly from the Hebrew Tanakh rather than from the Greek Septuagint. Jerome's extensive use of exegetical material written in Greek, as well as his use of the Aquiline and Theodotiontic columns of the Hexapla, along with the somewhat paraphrastic style in which he translated, makes it difficult to determine exactly how direct the conversion of Hebrew to Latin was. Augustine of Hippo ,
6958-441: The great uncial codices of the mid-4th century, most similar to the Codex Sinaiticus . The reviser's changes generally conform very closely to this Greek text, even in matters of word order—to the extent that the resulting text may be only barely intelligible as Latin. After the Gospels, the most widely used and copied part of the Christian Bible is the Book of Psalms. Consequently, Damasus also commissioned Jerome to revise
7056-459: The group commissioned and distributed these to friends or supporters, as part of a programme "insistently inserting his episcopal presence in the Christian landscape". He is recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church ; his feast day is 11 December. His life coincided with the rise of Emperor Constantine I and the reunion and re-division of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires , which
7154-516: The holy thing of the Lord. Consequently I here follow the Egyptian confessors who share your faith, and anchor my frail craft under the shadow of their great argosies. I know nothing of Vitalis; I reject Meletius; I have nothing to do with Paulinus. He that gathers not with you scatters; he that is not of Christ is of Antichrist. The Eastern Church, in the person of Basil of Caesarea , earnestly sought
7252-688: The insignia of the pontifex maximus as unbefitting a Christian, removed the Altar of Victory from the Senate at Rome , despite protests from the pagan members of the Senate. Emperor Gratian also forbade legacies of real property to the Vestals and abolished other privileges belonging to them and to the pontiffs. Pope Damasus I was either born in Rome, or in Lusitania around 305, before moving to Rome at
7350-418: The long and detailed Epistle 106) that he was familiar with the Roman Psalter text, and consequently it is assumed that this revision represents the Roman text as Jerome had found it. Wisdom , Ecclesiasticus , 1 and 2 Maccabees and Baruch (with the Letter of Jeremiah) are included in the Vulgate, and are purely Vetus Latina translations which Jerome did not touch. In the 9th century
7448-540: The majority of the Vulgate's translation is traditionally attributed to Jerome (directly helped by Paula of Rome ), the Vulgate has a compound text that is not entirely Jerome's work. Jerome's translation of the four Gospels are revisions of Vetus Latina translations he did while having the Greek as reference. The Latin translations of the rest of the New Testament are revisions to the Vetus Latina , considered as being made by Pelagian circles or by Rufinus
7546-769: The original text itself as it was produced by the Seventy translators . Jerome believed that the Hebrew text more clearly prefigured Christ than the Greek of the Septuagint, since he believed some quotes of the Old Testament in the New Testament were not present in the Septuagint, but existed in the Hebrew version; Jerome gave some of those quotes in his prologue to the Pentateuch. In the Galeatum principium (a.k.a. Prologus Galeatus ), Jerome described an Old Testament canon of 22 books, which he found represented in
7644-509: The primacy of the See of Peter: Yet, though your greatness terrifies me, your kindness attracts me. From the priest I demand the safe-keeping of the victim, from the shepherd the protection due to the sheep. Away with all that is overweening; let the state of Roman majesty withdraw. My words are spoken to the successor of the fisherman, to the disciple of the cross. As I follow no leader save Christ, so I communicate with none but your blessedness, that
7742-415: The principles of textual criticism as a basis for a new official translation of the Bible into Latin. This revision ultimately led to the Nova Vulgata issued by Pope John Paul II in 1979. Damasus I Pope Damasus I ( / ˈ d æ m ə s ə s / ; c. 305 – 11 December 384), also known as Damasus of Rome , was the bishop of Rome from October 366 to his death in 384. He presided over
7840-532: The psalter in use in Rome, to agree better with the Greek of the Common Septuagint. Jerome said he had done this cursorily when in Rome, but he later disowned this version, maintaining that copyists had reintroduced erroneous readings. Until the 20th century, it was commonly assumed that the surviving Roman Psalter represented Jerome's first attempted revision, but more recent scholarship—following de Bruyne—rejects this identification. The Roman Psalter
7938-526: The rest of the New Testament shows marked differences from Jerome, both in editorial practice and in their sources. Where Jerome sought to correct the Vetus Latina text with reference to the best recent Greek manuscripts, with a preference for those conforming to the Byzantine text-type, the Greek text underlying the revision of the rest of the New Testament demonstrates the Alexandrian text-type found in
8036-673: The revision of the Vulgate New Testament outside the Gospels. At any rate, it is reasonable to identify the author of the preface with the unknown reviser of the New Testament outside the gospels. Some manuscripts of the Pauline epistles contain short Marcionite prologues to each of the epistles indicating where they were written, with notes about where the recipients dwelt. Adolf von Harnack , citing De Bruyne, argued that these notes were written by Marcion of Sinope or one of his followers. Many early Vulgate manuscripts contain
8134-418: The said old and vulgate edition, which, by the lengthened usage of so many years, has been approved of in the Church, be, in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions, held as authentic; and that no one is to dare, or presume to reject it under any pretext whatever. The qualifier "Latin editions, now in circulation" and the use of "authentic" (not "inerrant") show the limits of this statement. When
8232-708: The system used in Robertus Stephanus 's Vulgate would later become the standard for dividing the New Testament. Together with John Hesronita and Victor Sciala, Gabriel Sionita published a Latin translation of the (Arabic) Psalter in 1614. (Liber Psalmorum Dauidis Regis et Prophetae ex Arabico idiomate in Latinum translatus, 1614). During the Protestant Reformation , several new Latin translations were produced: The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate or Clementine Vulgate ( Latin : Vulgata Clementina )
8330-542: The term Vulgata to describe the "new" Latin translation was made by Roger Bacon in the 13th century. The translations in the Vetus Latina had accumulated piecemeal over a century or more. They were not translated by a single person or institution, nor uniformly edited. The individual books varied in quality of translation and style, and different manuscripts and quotations witness wide variations in readings. Some books appear to have been translated several times. The book of Psalms , in particular, had circulated for over
8428-510: The time of the original Greek autographs. In 382 CE, Jerome began a revision of the existing Vetus Latina Gospels into contemporary Latin, corrected against manuscripts in the original Greek. Acts , Pauline epistles , Catholic epistles and the Apocalypse are Vetus Latina considered as being made by Pelagian groups or by Rufinus the Syrian . Those texts and others are known as
8526-417: The two prefects of the city were called in to restore order, and after a first setback, when they were driven to the suburbs and a massacre of 137 was perpetrated in the basilica of Sicininus (the modern Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore ), the prefects banished Ursinus to Gaul . There was further violence when he returned, which continued after Ursinus was exiled again. Another ancient narrative of events,
8624-416: The two books of Ezra found in the Septuagint and Vetus Latina , Esdras A and Esdras B, represented "variant examples" of a single Hebrew original. Hence, he does not translate Esdras A separately even though up until then it had been universally found in Greek and Vetus Latina Old Testaments, preceding Esdras B, the combined text of Ezra–Nehemiah. The Vulgate is usually credited as being
8722-578: The veneration of martyrs. As well as various prose letters and other pieces Damasus was the author of Latin verse. Alan Cameron describes his epitaph for a young girl called Projecta (of great interest to scholars as the Projecta Casket in the British Museum may have been made for her) as "a tissue of tags and clichés shakily strung together and barely squeezed into the meter". Damasus has been described as "the first society Pope", and
8820-617: The version by Arius Montanus ), Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic. It also included a version of the Gospels in Persian. The Vulgate Latin is used regularly in Thomas Hobbes ' Leviathan of 1651; in the Leviathan Hobbes "has a worrying tendency to treat the Vulgate as if it were the original". Before the publication of Pius XII 's Divino afflante Spiritu , the Vulgate was the source text used for many translations of
8918-518: The walls"), which by the 7th century was a station on the itineraries of the graves of the Roman martyrs. Damasus' regard for the Roman martyr is attested also by the tradition according to which the Pope built a church devoted to Laurence in his own house, San Lorenzo in Damaso . Damasus was pope for eighteen years and two months. His feast day is 11 December. He was buried beside his mother and sister in
9016-441: Was archdeacon of the Roman church when Pope Liberius was banished by Emperor Constantius II to Berea in 354. Damasus followed Liberius into exile, though he immediately returned to Rome. During the period before Liberius' return, Damasus had a great share in the government of the church. In the early Church , bishops were customarily elected by the clergy and the people of the diocese. While this simple method worked well in
9114-439: Was declared to "be held as authentic" by the Catholic Church by the Council of Trent. The Council of Trent cited long usage in support of the Vulgate's magisterial authority : Moreover, this sacred and holy Synod,—considering that no small utility may accrue to the Church of God, if it be made known which out of all the Latin editions, now in circulation, of the sacred books, is to be held as authentic,—ordains and declares, that
9212-409: Was helping Damasus, bishop of Rome with his ecclesiastical correspondence, and writing his answers to the questions referred to him by the councils of the east and west..." In order to put an end to the marked divergences in the western texts of that period, Damasus encouraged the highly respected scholar Jerome to revise the available Old Latin versions of the Bible into a more accurate Latin on
9310-531: Was possibly a member of a group of Hispanic Christians, largely related to each other, who were close to the Hispanic Theodosius I . A number of images of "DAMAS" in gold glass cups probably represent him and seem to be the first contemporary images of a pope to survive, though there is no real attempt at a likeness. "Damas" appears with other figures, including a Florus who may be Projecta's father. It has been suggested that Damasus or another of
9408-425: Was promulgated by Pope John Paul II . The Clementine Vulgate is still in use in the 1962 missal and breviary of the Catholic Church. Metrical Latin Bible translations are primarily Psalm paraphrases, or paraphrases of Song of Songs, Lamentations, in Latin verse which appeared in the 16th century, then abruptly disappeared. In 1907 Pope Pius X proposed that the Latin text of the Vulgate be recovered using
9506-464: Was relatively free in rendering their text into Latin, but it is possible to determine that the oldest surviving complete manuscripts of the Masoretic Text which date from nearly 600 years after Jerome, nevertheless transmit a consonantal Hebrew text very close to that used by Jerome. The Vulgate exists in many forms. The Codex Amiatinus is the oldest surviving complete manuscript from
9604-472: Was to preside in the Council of Rome of 382, which determined the canon or official list of Sacred Scripture. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church states: A council probably held at Rome in 382 under Damasus gave a complete list of the canonical books of both the Old Testament and the New Testament (also known as the ' Gelasian Decree ' because it was reproduced by Gelasius in 495), which
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